A good public relations strategy allows an organisation to communicate effectively with its target audience. To achieve optimum value, business owners need a process for executing that strategy as effectively and efficiently as possible. Without the right framework, you may be faced with short-lived gains or unnecessary expense. The good news is that there’s a simple method to follow – the Communications Cycle – that can serve as a guide for small business owners who want a simple and effective method for developing their public relations strategies. Ted Skinner, vice president of PR Productsat PR Newswire, answers key questions about making the method work for your business.
The Communications Cycle can be broken down into five steps:
1. Messaging.
Before implementing a public relations strategy, you must first determine what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. What are the key points you want to convey? What is the most effective format in which to communicate the message: text, video or multimedia?
2. Targeting.
The most important aspect of public relations, as in sales, is knowing your target audience. A common public relations misconception is viewing reporters as the primary audience. True, reporters will be your main communications conduit and a very important group for tailoring your messages, but the ultimate target of a PR campaign should be customers, investors and potential partners. Before engaging in any public relations outreach, determine who your audience is, where they’re located and what information sources they use to drive their business decisions. The more detailed your targeting, the more effective your communications will be.
3. Distribution.
There are several methods you can use to get the word out, ranging from the very basic to the more robust. As with messaging and targeting, tailor your distribution to each audience based on how it accesses information. E-mailing or faxing to a pre-determined list is the simplest and least costly method for disseminating information. However, this approach is limiting because only those on the list will get the information. Newswire distribution services come with a price tag, but the expense ensures a much wider audience through direct contact with reporters and postings to news and consumer sites around the world. Further, some newswires offer search engine optimisation of news releases, which increases the likelihood of your release being picked up by Yahoo! or Google. Social media elements, such as tagging technology and blog monitoring, are also being incorporated to augment the standard press release distribution.
Speaking of which, blogs and social media sites offer an increasingly important and very cost-effective channel for PR activities. However, with reward – reaching a highly targeted, motivated audience – comes risk. Blogs and social media sites open you up to criticism.
4. Monitoring and measurement.
Monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of a PR programme is crucial and should be ongoing. The most straight forward and cost effective way to monitor PR activity is to manually collect articles from printed publications or websites. Services, such as Google News, offer a relatively easy and free way to track coverage that’s posted online. However, collecting and clipping articles can be time consuming, especially for a small business owner. Professional clipping services can assume this burden, but at a price.
Equally important to the number of articles generated is the effectiveness of the coverage. Were your key messages properly conveyed? What tone did the media take in relating your news? Was it discussed in the blogosphere? These are all important factors in weighing the success or failure of a PR programme and should be evaluated after each campaign.
5. Assessment.
The final stage in the cycle is taking what you’ve learned from your campaign and applying it to future work. If the media wasn’t interested in your news, look for a different angle or different publication. If lack of understanding was a problem, refine your messages. If the wrong people read your news, re-examine your distribution methods. Overtime you’ll hone your campaign to achieve the greatest results.